A power electronics system is the combination of power semiconductor devices, inductors, capacitors and resistors to process and convert electric energy from an available level to another desired and usable level. The soul of a power electronics circuit is the solid-state switching devices, which are controlled to operate at ON and OFF state repetitively to achieve power conversion and regulation. The low-current control signal generated by a logic circuit will be received by a gate driver to produce an input with enough high current for the gate of the switching devices so as to turn the switching devices on and off. For illustrative purpose, a driving circuit topology having a typical totem pair configuration 100 is shown in FIG. 1.
Increase in switching frequency has always been in great demand to enhance power density and further miniaturize the switching converters. Fast-switching capability commensurate with high switching frequency is also primary concern to reduce switching losses. In the bridge-leg configuration that are extensively found in synchronous buck converters, half/full bridge converters and inverters, there are two complementary switches, one is the control switch which determines the switching speed, the other is the synchronous switch which is in ZVS switching.
High switching speed of the switching devices may result in a spurious triggering pulse in the gate-source voltage of the synchronous switch, which, if goes higher than the threshold voltage of the switching devices, can partially or even fully turn on the synchronous switch that is supposed to be off.